The field of the disclosure relates generally to reduced-weight gear components for use in aviation engines and methods of manufacturing such components and, more particularly, to gear components of a gearbox in an aviation engine.
Aircraft engines typically include a plurality of gearboxes including a plurality of gears. Some gearboxes include power gearboxes and accessory gearboxes and include epicyclic gear assemblies. Known epicyclic gear assemblies typically include an outer ring gear, a central or sun gear, and a plurality of planet gears disposed between the outer ring gear and the central gear and configured to engage both the ring gear and the central gear. During operation, a drive applies a rotational force to at least one of the ring gear, the plurality of planet gears, and the central gear, thereby inducing rotation of one or more of the other epicyclic gear assembly gears. Planet gears are often coupled together by one or more carriers by bearing pins extending through each planet gear. Known bearing pins are often formed from solid bar stock or billets and, as a result, generally include unnecessary internal material that adds weight to the bearing pin without substantially adding to the overall strength of the bearing pin. Accordingly, such known bearing pins include unnecessary weight and negatively affect the overall efficiency of epicyclic gear assemblies in which they are included.